Thursday 16 April 2015

A to Z Challenge 2015 - Emotions & Reactions - N is for Numbness (writing discussion & fiction)

A to Z Challenge 2015 - Emotions & Reactions









This year for the A to Z Challenge, I'm investigating emotions and reactions and their use to in writing. So, I'll be talking about my first thoughts as a writer when I think about the words we use to describe emotions and my experience of their use in literature.

numbness
numbness: the state of lack of feeling, deadness, insensibility.

As opposed to boredom, which is loss of interest, numbness is a total lack of feeling. When I think about numbness, the idea that comes to mind is that nothing is felt, and in a lot of cases, nothing is thought either. Numbness is the mind shutting down, unable, or unwilling to cope with the emotions that would otherwise ensue.

Shock can be one source of numbness, what the person is seeing is just too incredible to process and, in this case, it may be a fleeting reaction. This was used to great effect in The Lady in White, a ghost story starring Lukas Haas. A subplot of the story is that a school janitor is accused of the killing of children over a number of years, he is black and an easy target, but, against the odds, he is freed when it is clear he couldn't have done it. His wife is overjoyed to see him and stands one side of the car in which he is sitting. One of the mothers of the dead children bends down to the other side of the car, apparently in reconciliation, but then shoots the man. His wife, who has just watched her husband;s blood splatter on the car window goes completely blank. She stands up, walking away, the crowd parting in front of her, and it is not until she collapses that people realise she has been shot as well. It is an emotionally charged, shocking scene, and all because of the woman's total lack of reaction.

It is the contrast that makes this use of numbness so strong.

However, numbness can also be a slow-growing thing, a disinterest in the world, a refusal to react to it, which is cultivated over years. This type of numbness is a protection, the armour someone wears after disappointment, or difficulty. It's a kind of torpor, a self-induced hibernation, sometimes only mental, sometimes physical as well. It is the awakening from this 'sleep' that can form the pivot of a story, which is especially interesting when people don't even know they have cultivated a numbness in their lives. Routine, the use of reactions, like grumpiness, that are so familiar they are no longer emotions touching the mind, merely part of the armour,

This is used a lot in little orphan annie style stories, Annie being one of them, where a perpetually grumpy old man is shown the delight of the world again through the eyes of a child. Pollyanna has a similar character in Mr Pendergast. These characters are set in their ways, their only reaction the habitual grump, which I would say is so ingrained it has ceased to mean anything. They are, for all intents and purposes, numb to their world. Then, along comes 'a little ray of sunshine'.

The most difficult challenge, I think, is to write from the perspective of the numb character. If anyone has read I Am David by Anne Holme, about a boy that escapes a labour camp which is the only life he can remember, they will have read this awakening from numbness expertly done. When David learns to see colours again, it is quite a heart-rending concept.

So, whether it is dramatic contrast, or slow rising from darkness, numbness can be a powerful reaction.

QUESTION: Have you read/watched/written numbness - did you find it an easy concept to grasp?

~

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27 comments:

  1. In my first book, I had a scene where the character went numb. Instead of going into description, I left a few blank lines to give a visual of the nothingness my MC felt.

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Member of C. Lee's Muffin Commando Squad
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  2. I can't think of watching or reading numbness in characters but I can say certain periods of my life I've been numb about things going on.

    betty

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    1. I know what you mean, there was one period in my life when I felt pretty lonely, I was living away from friends and family, and I spent a year numb until I realised I had to get myself out of the situation.

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  3. I've written numbness, or at least something close to it, where my character basically withdrew into herself as she tried to figure out what to do. It's tricky, and I honestly don't know if I pulled it off well, but there it is. ;)

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    1. Having read your short stories, I don't doubt you pulled it off :)

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  4. altho I have not written about numbness I recall a teenage girl who looked and dressed like a boy , and always in black (I wont say why) that as a result of meeting me she can now see colours. Her words accompany me through the years- we never know where we make a difference...IRL or even through our blogs

    zannierose A-Z visitor

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    1. That is a lovely story and a great thing to know - that girl must be glad she met you.

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  5. Hi Sophie .. what a great post with some really good examples ... I now feel I understand ... I'm sure we all experience numbness going through life ... I know I did in recent years - but I had the realisation to know that things would improve .. I'm just so glad I don't become a grumpy character without that light in front of me ...

    Really interesting - as are everyone's comments.

    Re the Witchcraft museum .. most of the commenters have included it high on their list of 'to be visited' ... I'm not sure if you also went with Tasha - but it was one of you who mentioned it last year to me ..

    Cheers Hilary

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    1. yes, I did go to the witchcraft museum with Tasha :) I don't remember which one of us mentioned it. ;P

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  6. Working on a story that has a character fitting this numbness bill. It's not easy to write from his perspective. You've given some amazing example in your post.

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  7. This is something I'm actually going to have to write in my WIP later. My heroine goes through a um...disaster and then even worse trauma following it. She goes through a period where she's numb to everything. It'll be difficult to write, that's for sure.

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  8. Too familiar. Hi Sophie, Think we might be friends now! :D
    As far as this post I see numbness all the time with parents of missing children.
    Very nice write up.
    http://sytiva.blogspot.com/

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    1. That must be a terrible thing to go through, missing children.

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  9. This is a scary one, usually happens when I get really upset about something. This doesn't happen very much, but still, I tend to go numb as a means of defense.

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    1. I'm sure a evolutionary psychologist could tell us why we humans have this particular defence mechanism.

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  10. Once again, an emotion that is great when it is done well. I'll have to look up some of those stories :)

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
    MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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    1. The Lady in White is one of my fav movies - I searched for it high and low and eventually had to order the DVD from the States, because it hadn't been released over here :)

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  11. In my first zombie book I tried to convey that one of the characters had grown numb. It's an interesting condition to explore.

    Precious Monsters

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    1. Yes, challenging for a writer, and (hopefully) interesting for the reader :)

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  12. I think numbness is a natural reaction to something really stressful and sudden. Often it's skipped in fiction, though, because the reader is eager for a reaction. It's more realistic to include it.

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    1. Yes, you could be right there - it's really difficult to convey no reaction, but it can be more realistic :)

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  13. It's definitely a powerful reaction to be so shocked or deadened by something that you switch off from the world. But then that can go a lot of ways - resignation, or a desire for revenge or to make a change. It depends who is around the character.

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    1. That is true - it's a jumping off point to lots of different possibilities.

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